3. Tutorial 3
Tutorial: Mad Skillz, the How To
Skills are actions! Powers! They represent what your character is capable of doing. Open the Skill Window and check out your skills!
New skills can be created through special acts, like enough repetition or sufficiently badass actions! Observation and discovery are basic things anybody can do. Try to make a skill out of them!
Objective: Open the Skill Window. Obtain the skill [Analyze].
Reward: 6 XP
Hint: There are lots of ways to learn skills. In addition to repetition, focus and being awesome, you can learn from a teacher with the skill, or with a clear set of instructions. You may even be able to do some things you hadn't thought possible, if you try.
Hint: There's no limit to the number of skills you can have, and more skills are always better. Play around with it. See how many skills you can unlock.
Powers. Actions. It wouldn't be much of a game if those didn't exist, now would it?
But it was seriously starting to look like an RPG. Chisame thought of Ragnarok Online, the one she played the most. Skills were determined by class there. In fact, in pretty much every other RPG too. If not class, then race or character… Sure, some games relied on equipment, others allowed class changes… Well, Final Fantasy had the Sphere Grid, but that was like a skill tree. You had to unlock things in a sort of order. But here… Here she could unlock any skill?
Was this the Gamer's class point? Being able to get any skill? Without limits?
"OP." She said, impressed. In the long run, it was seriously powerful. She wouldn't have to worry about her build, or at least worry less, if she could learn any skill. Sure, focusing on some yielded the best results, unless one was willing to spend hours and hours just grinding, but there wasn't, or didn't seem to be, the pressure of having to choose the right power, unlike the stat points. It sounded more like a catch 'em all kind of deal.
To top it off, it seemed learning skills amounted to just doing. Maybe she could learn how to double jump? If she was taught kung-fu by an old master, would she be able to stand under a waterfall, on top of bamboo, jump-kick over trees and break stone with her bare hands? And being awesome was apparently enough too. How much was awesome enough? Were her hacking skills enough? She'd been 11 when she first broke into the CIA, just to see if she could. And Chiu? Chiu surely won with the cute factor, if not the awesome one!
Chisame giggled at the possibilities then stopped herself, looking around guiltily. 'I'm getting way too much into this shit.' She shook her head. "Focus." 'I need answers first.' She put the exciting prospects on hold, for later experimentation.
Easy part of the quest first. "Skill Window." She called out. Immediately a panel appeared in front of her. It was just a bit disconcerting how used to the whole game thing Chisame was getting.
But unlike the Character Window, which aside from the HP and EP bars, had mostly letters and numbers, the Skill Window had… icons. In fact, it was mostly an empty panel with only two icons in a square grid. Below the icons were captions, no doubt the skills' names.
[Gamer's Mind]
[Gamer's Body]
Gamer's Mind featured a stylized image of the upper half of a person's head, glowing, and with the eyes closed. Gamer's Body had a glowing arm and shoulder.
"Gamer's Mind and Gamer's Body… Kinda lame." Chisame sweatdropped. Were these what her skills amounted to? It seemed the universe was throwing in her face the amount of time she spent playing games. "Let's see." Trusting that icons couldn't very well be the only information she had, she reached out to touch Gamer's Mind. A smaller panel popped up.
[Gamer's Mind (Passive) Lv MAX]
Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through.
Allows peaceful state of mind.
Immunity to psychological status effect.
"Oh." Chisame felt herself go pale as she read the description. That explained... a lot.
Chisame was usually a pretty calm person. Rational. But even she was able to admit that getting her buttons pressed led to her temper flaring. She didn't want to be slotted into the crazy category... which her classmates would probably find completely acceptable! So she restrained herself. However, looking back, weren't her reactions ever since waking up too muted? Too calm? Shouldn't she have had a nervous breakdown or something? Fear, anger, surprise. They were all too fleeting, her mind quickly overcoming them and starting to work on the problems she had in front of her.
She should be pissed that this… this game was messing with her head. Changing the way she thought. But the thing was… She was pissed. She was just still able to think. Just like the player is protected behind the computer's screen, secure and able to make decisions without the pressures the character would be feeling, her mind was protected from the reality around her. And it was an edge. There was no way Chisame could deny that. Being unable to freeze in fear when, say, a car is about to hit her, would allow her to jump out of the way. Being unable to panic if her head was suddenly blank and a test paper was in front of her. Being unable to be scarred for life, suffer PTSD or go really crazy…
Undeniably, Gamer's Mind was useful, vital even. She could understand the logic for messing with the very way she thought. Maybe, she could even accept it. And that scared the remaining emotional part of Chisame, the one that could be turned off as easily as turning a tap closed.
She had to get her mind off this topic. She pressed the icon for Gamer's Body.
[Gamer's Body (Passive) Lv MAX]
Grants a body that allows for the user to live the real world like a game.
She read it. Closed her eyes. And let herself fall down on the bed again.
"Oh, fuck off." She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes. "That's… don't. You… whatever… you don't get to drop something like this on me. No matter how real it seems, I refuse. I'm not… in the real world." Yet, the suspicions in the back of her head could be shoved away but not eliminated. The discrepancies… The freaky stuff… Only she was affected. The world felt the same as always. She was the one who was seeing things, feeling strangely okay even after waking up in the infirmary.
She couldn't deny it. Not really. She had a Gamer's Mind after all.
After a full minute, Chisame opened her eyes and stared at the unfamiliar ceiling like she wanted to murder it. She kinda did. It just wasn't fair. She was resigned. Not happy.
"Let's just get this quest over with."
Part one was done, unless she had royally screwed up, so all she needed was to get a new skill…
The Analyze skill. Observation, discovery and, obviously, analysis. 'Right, how do I make a skill out of this. I suppose the only method available to me here is the repetition way.'
"Uh." She lifted her glasses up and looked at them. Really looked at them. She had gotten them just a little over a year before, just before entering middle school. There were some scratches on the lenses, but they didn't matter as much as on regular people's glasses. The lenses weren't lenses at all. They were just glass, uncut. Chisame didn't need glasses. She had better than average vision actually. But talking with people, dealing with people, facing the world… The glasses were a barrier. A protection between her and them. Without them people saw Chisame, really saw her, and it sent her into a panic, freezing her on the spot before the urge to run became too much and she did just that. Idly she wondered if Gamer's Mind would stop that. It hadn't happened in years, but only because she had her glasses. Her trusty glasses, frames slightly bent, round glass covering her eyes.
Ping!
A skill has been created through a special act.
A skill to observe and understand, [Analyze], has been created.
[Analyze (Active) Lv1 0%XP]
Skill to observe and understand your surroundings, revealing extra information. The ability that made mankind what it is today.
Reveals statistics and weaknesses.
Quest Complete!
+ 6 XP
Chisame dismissed the various warnings and looked at her glasses again. She subvocalized. "Analyze."
[Fake Glasses - Normal]
Glasses with fake lenses, just for decoration. They hide the eyes and disguise the user's true persona.
Useful for disguising.
Useful for disguising the true persona… Right, she wasn't going to go there. She'd had enough of that before. But it looked like an incredibly useful skill. It wasn't a coincidence that Libra was one of the abilities Chisame abused the most when she was facing bosses without guides. Or to say, the first playthrough, as a proper gamer. Information gathering was vital and she knew that, both as a gamer and a hacker. Now, she only had to wait for…
Ping!
There it was.
Quest Alert!
Tutorial: Making an Inventory
Stats and skills only make half a character. The rest is all equipment. The Inventory Window allows you to both store items and equip yourself. Give it a try!
Objective: Open the Inventory Window. Equip [Fake Glasses].
Reward: 3XP
Yosh! Halfway through! This Quest needs two Hints too!
[x] Hint: Iaijutsu is a skill, but a gamer is never really unarmed. Just reach into your inventory and draw your weapon of choice!
[x] Hint: Like a snail, a true gamer can take their house with the.! Bags of Holding ahoy!
[x] Hint: Don't forget to grind your skills. Equipment can break and get lost, but skills are forever.
[x] Hint: Write-in!
